My Women’s Running Cover Debut

I gave a killer interview on my future goals for running, including plans to rock the Olympic trials in 2016.

Ha! Kidding!

The cover shoot was actually a booth set up at the Women’s Half Marathon expo today.

How fun is that?!

Also, at the booth – custom headbands!

Look for the girl rockin’ the hot pink “Meals and Miles” headband on the course tomorrow.

So, small world, the ladies ahead of me were creating “Mims Milers” headbands. Mims is the extra-small town right next to the small town I grew up in. Turns out we went to the same high school and my aunt was their guidance counselor in elementary school. Seriously small world. You just never know who you’re going to connect with in line at a race expo.

The Women’s Half Marathon St. Pete expo was held at the BEAUTIFUL Renaissance Vinoy Resort.

They tease you by having you walk past the pool area when picking up your race shirt. If I had my bathing suit on me, you better believe I would have skipped grabbing the shirt and just jumped right in. It was calling my name!

Packet pick-up was nice and organized. There were no crowds, no line, and the whole process took less than 5 minutes – I’d call that a success.

I did forget my confirmation sheet, but I was able to look up my bib number and fill out a new one without a problem.

The expo down the hall was bigger than I was expecting. I’ve done small races before with just a handful of booths, but this one had a few dozen in attendance. The majority of the booths were capitalizing on the female dominant race with lots of pink, custom jewelry, and even finish line bouquets of flowers for sale. I’m telling you – the female running market is HUGE. Make anything pink (water bottle, fuel belt, shoes, navigation watch,etc) and you’ve got gold.

I spent a good 30 minutes wandering around the expo (including waiting in line for the cover photo/ headband) before calling it a day. I managed to get out with only two new purchases: a pull over and tank top from Raw Bamboo – love their stuff!

I also ran into a friend on the way out the door.

Mary and I are planning to start the race together. Her “easy” pace is a little different than my “easy” pace (she’s a speedster), so we’ll see how long that lasts.

I still need to figure out what I’m wearing for the race. I’m thinking a running skirt and lots of pink (to go with my headband). Thoughts?

After the expo, I walked to Rollbotto for lunch.

Rollbotto is a build-your-own sushi place that I’d heard people rave about, but had never been. I didn’t get a good photo of the food counter, but let’s just say it was less than impressive and I was a bit worried. I opted to go the build-your-own salad route with grilled eel, chicken, all the veggies, sesame seeds, and ginger dressing.

The salad ended up being really good. I was worried when she went heavy on the dressing (I’m not a big dressing fan), but it totally worked here. I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

I ran a few errands before making it home, then Derek and I watched Brave (eh. it was alright for a Disney movie.) and made pizza for dinner.

The crust was store bought from the Publix bakery (we’re pretty much obsessed with their pizza dough) and toppings included: asparagus, mushrooms, bacon, sausage, and blue cheese. The bacon was my idea, the sausage was Derek’s.

We overdid it on the meat, but other than that it was pretty tasty. LOVE blue cheese on pizza! Awesome pre-race meal.

All my electronics are charging (iPod – check!, camera – check!, Garmin – check!), my alarm clock is set (4:30am – eek!), and my bib is ready to be pinned. Now i just need to figure out what I’m wearing, get a good night sleep, and I’ll be good to go!

What a fabulous feature of the race expo!! Having a cover shot would be an awesome way to commemorate the event!
Enjoy yourself tomorrow! Do what you can. If you leave your heart on the course, you can’t lose!!Chelsie @ Balance, Not Scale recently posted..“Favourite all of the things!” Friday